Garment



May 22, 1951 E. OLRICH ETAL 2,554,3

GARMENT Filed Nov. 15, 1947 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 /NVENTOR6 EENE$TL.OLRICH FkAN/a 11v (marl-151.0

QJQAQM ATTaRNEYf May 22, 1951 E. 1.. OLRICH ETAL GARMENT 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed Nov. 15, 1947 /NVENTOR8 EE'NESTL-OLEICH FEANKL //v (71A TF/ELD BY ATTORNEYS E. L. OLRICH ETAL May 22, 1951 GARMENT 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed NOV. 15, 1947 /NVENTOR6 EENES T L O1. RICH FRANKLIN C'flATF/ELD AT TOENEK;

Patented May 22, 1951 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE GARMENT Application November 15, 1947, Serial No. 786,292

1 Claim.

This invention relates to new and useful improvements in knitted garments or shirts particularly adapted for use by pilots, athletes, and other individuals whose duties may require frequent raising, lowering, and other movements of the arms.

It is well known that pilots or aviators, in the operation of their ships, must frequently move their arms to various positions in the manipulation of the various controls of the ship. Conventional knitted garments do not provide for free movement of the arms in all directions, because of the usual close or snug fitting characteristics of such garments, whereby when the arms are raised to a position over the head, a pulling action is usually imparted to the fabric constituting the body of the garment, whereby the garment may be pulled upwardly upon the wearers body to an undesirable and frequently an uncomfortable position. It is therefore highly desirable that garments or shirts to be worn by pilots be so constructed as to minimize or completely eliminate any pulling in the fabric of the garment when the pilot raises his arms or outwardly stretches them in different directions in the performance of his duty, whereby the pilot, or wearer of the garment is permitted free and unrestricted movement of his arms in all directions without pulling or shifting the position of the garment on his body.

It is, therefore, a feature of the present invention to provide a garment of this general type in which the sleeves are so secured to the body of the garment that the wearer of the garment may readily swing or stretch his arms in any desired direction, without exerting undue tension in any part of the fabric of the garment.

A further object of the invention is to provide an aviation shirt comprising a body portion having its sleeves secured thereto in a novel manner whereby the wearer may freely move his arms in any desired direction without exerting undue tension in any portion of the arms of the garment or in the body thereof.

A further object is to provide a garment of the class described wherein the body and sleeve portions of the garment are made of knitted fabric, independently of one another, and suitable gussets or inserts are embodied in said garment between the body and sleeve portions thereof, when the sleeves are stitched to the body portion, said inserts being readily stretchable in a direction to permit free unrestricted movement of the wearer's arms in up-and-down directions, as well as in all other directions.

A further object is to provide a knitted garment made in a manner somewhat similar to a sweat shirt, but wherein the arms are secured to the body of the garment in a manner to permit free movement of the arms in all directions without pulling in the fabric forming the body of the garment, and whereby the garment will always retain its correct position upon the upper portion of the wearer's body, and also whereby the fit of the garment upon the wearers body will be such that fabric of the garment will follow closely the come-and-go of the skin and flesh of the wearers body, when swinging or shifting the arms from one position to another.

Other objects of the invention reside in the embodiment of suitable knitted inserts in the arm pits of the garment which are readily stretchable in directions to permit universal movement of the wearers arms without pulling of the fabric of the body of the garment, and also whereby undesirable bunching of the fabric under the arms, when the arms are in a lowered position is eliminated; in the provision of a knitted garment which is particularly well suited for use by aviators, athletes, and others desiring a garment of this particular class; and in the provision of such a garment which readily lends itself to manufacture in quantity production on conventional machinery, at low cost.

Other objects of the invention will appear from the following description and the accompanying drawings and will be pointed out in the annexed claim.

; In the accompanying drawings there has been .disclosed a structure designed to carry out the various objects of the invention, but it is to be understood that the invention is not confined to the exact features shown, as various changes may be made within the scope of the claim which follows.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a perspective view showing the garment positioned upon a body;

Figure 2 is a similar view showing the rear of the garment;

Figure 3 is a top View of the garment with portions of the sleeves broken away;

Figure 4 is a front view of the garment only;

Figure 5 is a rear View thereof;

Figure 6 is a front View of the garment with the lower portion broken away, showing one arm raised and the other in a lowered position;

Figure '7 is a side view of Figure 6 showing the lateral stretching of the inserts under the arms when the arms are raised; and

Figure 8 is a side view of a figure showing one arm supported in a horizontal and forwardly extending position, and also showing how the insert under the arm may readily stretch to prevent any pulling of the fabric in the back of the garment when the arm is so held. v

The novel garment herein disclosed is shown comprising a body portion, generally designated by the numeral 2, comprising a front panel 3 and back panel 4 which may be secured together by suitable scams 5 at the sides of the garment, as indicated in Figure 4. A neck portion 6, of the type commonly referred to in the trade as a turtle neck, is shown secured to the body of the garment by an annular seam I which extends around the neck, as clearly illustrated in Figures 4 and 5.

One of the important features of the present invention resides in the novel means provided for securing the sleeves of the garment to the body thereof whereby no pulling effect is imparted to the fabric of the garment body when the arms are raised above the head, or are otherwise outwardly stretched in different directions. To thus secure the sleeves to the body of the garment, the sleeves 8, as clearly illustrated in the application drawings, are made raglan style, and each is shown made from a piece of flat knitted fabric having its opposed edges stitched together by a seam 9 along the inside of the sleeve, as best illustrated in Figure 7. As the two sleeves of the garment are identical in construction, but one will be herein described in detail. The inner end of the blank from which the sleeve is made is cut to provide 'a shoulder portion ID, the end ll of which extends to the collar portion 6 and is secured thereto by the seam l. The sleeve may be provided at its outer end with a suitable cuff [2, as shown in Figures 4 and 5, which may be folded upon itself, as shown in Figures 1 and 2 when the garment is worn.

To prevent any pulling in the fabric constituting the body of the garment, when the arms are raised to a position above the head, as shown for example in Figures 6 and 7, a novel insert, generally designated by the numeral 13, is interposed in the garment between the inner lower portion of the sleeve and body of the garment adapted to overlie the arm pits, as will be clearly understood by reference to the application drawings. The insert 13 is made of a suitable knitted fabric which is freely stretchable in one direction, as indicated by the arrow [4 in the drawings. In some cases the knitted fabric from which the body of the garment is made may be sufiiciently stretchable in one direction to permit its use in the construction of the insert. The insert, however, is so arranged in the garment that its wales run lengthwise thereof or from the front down around through the arm pit and up the back, as clearly illustrated by the arrow 20 in Figures 1, 2 and 8. The insert I3 is readily stretchable in a lateral direction, as indicated by the arrow I4 in the drawings, and may be more or less non-stretchable in the direction of its wales. The wales of the body portion of the garment preferably run lengthwise thereof or in an up-and-down direction, as indicated by the arrow I5, whereby the body of the garment may snugly fit the contour of the wearers body, as is well known in the art. In like manner, the wales of the sleeves run lengthwise thereof 4 as indicated by the arrow [6, whereby the sleeves may also somewhat snugly fit the wearers arms.

The insert [3 is secured to the sleeve portion of the garment by a seam 11 starting from the seam l at the neck of the garment and extending down through the arm pit and back to the seam 1 at the other side of the shoulder, as illustratedin Figures 4 and 5. The opposite side of the insert I3 is secured to the upper portion of the body of the garment by a seam 18 which extends the full length of the insert l3 and may have its ends anchored to the seam II, as shown at I9 and 2| in Figures 4 and 5.

The insert 13 in its normal state is sufficiently wide in the region of the arm pit to permit sufficient stretching thereof to allow the arm to be raisedto an upright position, as shown in Figures 6 and 7, without in any way causing any pulling action to be imparted to the fabric constituting the body of the garment, whereby maximum comfort and freedom with absolutely no restrictions to arm movements is provided the wearer at all times, as will be understood by reference to Figures 6 and 7.

This is an extremely important feature of the invention, in that frequent raising and lowering of the arms will not tend to upwardly pull the garment on the wearers body, nor to displace it thereon. In other words, because of the inse'rts 53 being readily stretchable in the direction of the arrow M, or cross-wise thereof, the arms may be freely moved to any desired position without exerting any undesirable pulling in any portion of the garment, and without in any way shifting the position of the garment upon the wearers body. The inherent construction of the inserts 13 also prevents the fabric of the garment at the arm pits from bunching up there-- in, when the arms are in a lowered position.

The garment has been found particularly useful to aviators and pilots who must frequently raise their arms to positions over their heads 'to manipulate certain controls. The garment is also well suited for athletes and others who may frequently raise the arms to positions over the head.

In a garment such as herein disclosed, in which the body and sleeve portions are made from a knitted fabric which is readily stretchable in a horizont'al'dire'ctio'n, the entire garment including the inserts 13 may be made from the same kind of fabric, with the wales of the different parts of the garment being disposed as shown in the drawings, it being understood that the fabric has adequate stretch in one direction to provide adequate stretch for the inserts :3 to eliminate pulling in the fabric in the body portion of the garment, when the sleeves are raised to positions such as shown in Figures 6 and 7.

In the application drawings, the invention is shown embodied in a shirt of the type which is particularly applicable for aviators and pilots. Obviously, it maybe utili'zedin other types of garmentss'uch as certain'types of athletic garments, and in full length garmentssuch as union suits, if desirable.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that we have accomplished at least the principal specifically described; hence it will be appreciated that the herein disclosed embodiments are illustrative only, and that our invention is not limited thereto.

We claim as our invention:

In a garment of the class described including a body portion having an annular neck portion and sleeves of the raglan type, the end of each of said sleeves adjacent said body portion having edges including converging sides terminating in an apex to provide a triangular portion adapted to overlay the shoulders of the wearer, each said triangular portion being secured at the apex thereof to said annular neck portion, a portion of each of said converging sides being secured to adjacent edges of said body portion adjacent said annular neck portion from a point on each of said converging sides in closely spaced relation to said annular neck portion, the remaining portion of the edges of each of said sleeves being spaced from an edge of said body portion, and elongated inserts in said garment positioned between said sleeve and said body portion, said inserts each having their intermediate portions en larged and overlying the armpits of the wearer and having their opposed edges gradually tapering inwardly at each end of said insert to points, one of said opposed edges of said elongated insert being secured to the edge portion of said sleeve spaced from said body portion and said ERNEST L. OLRIC'H. FRANKLIN CHATFIELD.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,670,206 Crossingham July 31, 1928 2,314,226 Lee Mar. 16, 1943 2,434,809 Northrup Jan. 20, 1948 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date Great Britain of 1913 

